T-Mobile says iPhone coming, subsidies going in 3-4 months

The carrier is already supporting nearly 2 million iPhone users.

The iPhone will officially arrive at T-Mobile USA within three to four months, according to CEO John Legere. Legere made the comments to Reuters during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, noting that the company's plans to drop phone subsidies would also come to fruition during that same time period.

T-Mobile announced in December that it would finally begin offering the iPhone to subscribers, after years of being the only major US carrier without the device. At the time, the company was vague about which Apple products it would carry; the iPhone is a given, but T-Mobile may follow in AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint's footsteps by offering a cellular version of the iPad as well.

Legere's comments at CES didn't address the iPad, however—instead, he stuck solely to the iPhone and subsidies as his main talking points.

"They're all, I would call them, in three to four months as opposed to six to nine months," Legere told Reuters.

In a separate comment, Legere also said that T-Mobile is already supporting 1.9 million iPhones on its network, and that it was seeing 100,000 new iPhone activations every month already.

As for the subsidies, Legere emphasized that he believes it might increase its market share by getting rid of discounted phones, simply offering lower monthly fees than the competition. He foresees subscriber numbers increasing by 5 percent or more, since T-Mobile won't force users into a two-year contract in exchange for the subsidy like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. "If the old industry structure chooses to ignore what we do, that's a potential," he said.

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

I would think it better for them to work as an option a 0% loan that gets paid off. $30 per month for all you can eat, another $30 give you $720 phone for 0 down.

I would think at the cost of these damned things you'd be given the option of leasing them instead of buying them. They cost as much as a mid-range laptop because these things are computers not phones. Expecting people to be willing to shell out over $700 for what is marketed as a cellphone is crazy.

This is a good thing--both the ending of subsidies and their getting the iPhone.

I ditched my unresponsive Sensation 4G for an iPhone 5 in December and couldn't be happier. We moved to a family value plan that gives us unlimited data (throttle to 2G after 2GB of usage in a month), unlimited text for four cell phones, two of which have unlimited voice and two with 500 minutes talk time each. All have unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile, evenings and weekends. Plus, we've got our home phone on T-Mobile with unlimited nationwide calling. The Android phones also have WiFi calling--unlimited. Total monthly charge, less taxes, is $135/mos. Once I join my new employer on Monday I'll get an additional discount too.

Admittedly we have to buy our own phones, but that's a choice we can make on our schedule, not on the carrier's.

iPhone has yet to see 4G, but I'm occasionally getting 3G. I expect 3G/4G coverage for the iPhone 5 to steadily improve.

I would think it better for them to work as an option a 0% loan that gets paid off. $30 per month for all you can eat, another $30 give you $720 phone for 0 down.

I would think at the cost of these damned things you'd be given the option of leasing them instead of buying them. They cost as much as a mid-range laptop because these things are computers not phones. Expecting people to be willing to shell out over $700 for what is marketed as a cellphone is crazy.

The way it currently works with the "value" plans is that you pay the full price of the phone, but they'll put you on an interest-free payment plan so you don't have to put up the $700 all at once. Once the phone is paid-off your bill goes down, unlike the subsidized model which almost forces you to grab a new phone. Otherwise, you leave money on the table.

I hope this works out well for them. It will give good options to people out there who want contract-free service. With lower rates, I can see a lot of AT&T customers at their end of their contracts, who don't want/need to upgrade their phone, jumping over to T-Mobile. And a growing number of people who can do math and afford up-front costs, to join up with them.

As for the subsidies, Legere emphasized that he believes it might increase its market share by getting rid of discounted phones, simply offering lower monthly fees than the competition. He foresees subscriber numbers increasing by 5 percent or more, since T-Mobile won't force users into a two-year contract in exchange for the subsidy like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

I don't buy that. They already have non-subsidized plans (I've been on one for years). It's definitely possible that they could win more people over to those plans if they advertized them better (a little over a year ago, they started hiding any information about non-subsidized plans from their store locations and started pushing subsidized plans hard). However eliminating their subsidized plans won't win anyone over. If anything it will cause them to loose some customers who want a subsidized plan.

As for the subsidies, Legere emphasized that he believes it might increase its market share by getting rid of discounted phones, simply offering lower monthly fees than the competition. He foresees subscriber numbers increasing by 5 percent or more, since T-Mobile won't force users into a two-year contract in exchange for the subsidy like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

I don't buy that. They already have non-subsidized plans (I've been on one for years). It's definitely possible that they could win more people over to those plans if they advertized them better (a little over a year ago, they started hiding any information about non-subsidized plans from their store locations and started pushing subsidized plans hard). However eliminating their subsidized plans won't win anyone over. If anything it will cause them to loose some customers who want a subsidized plan.

You can still delay the price of the phone up front. Basically they will give you a loan - I am sure they fully expect most users to take this route.

You can still delay the price of the phone up front. Basically they will give you a loan - I am sure they fully expect most users to take this route.

They call it ERP,and it's a 0% interest loan,usually ~$200 upfront and then $xx payments over 20 months. Unfortunately you're paying the full subsidized price for the phone(which is upwards of $700! for the Note 2,$500 for the 16gb Nexus 4 ,etc) . And you'll still be locked into a 2 year contract if you're going to way T-Mobile wants you to(ie;Value Plan instead of Monthly4G)

At the end of the day, while I'm sure that T-Mobile's done the focus groups/math/marketing research, I don't know if people are going to bite. The initial capital outlay is going to turn A LOT of people off,especially families (I picked up 3 SGSIII on my Classic Plan for $20 each, even if I had bought them off of swappa for $400 each, the $35/month I would've saved going to value is much less than the 1140 I saved on the phones!)

The no-contract system is admirable, though perhaps it won't work for people that are bad at math.

The big problem for T-Mobile, at least out west, is that the coverage is very poor once you leave large urban areas, and roaming is very limited. I.e. In California, if you go to gold country, or Yosemite, there is adequate AT&T coverage on AT&T, excellent Verizon and Sprint coverage on Golden State Cellular, but no T-Mobile coverage (I was hoping that their maps showing no coverage were wrong, but they weren't). You also get no coverage if you're on something like Virgin Mobile or Boost since these Sprint services don't have any off-network roaming capability.

I thought that T-Mobile's roaming coverage was going to vastly improve as part of terms of the failed AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile, but at least out west nothing seems to have changed. T-Mobile has been losing coverage as roaming agreements with AT&T have expired and not been renewed.

T-Mobile has positioned themselves as a lower cost carriers, but there are reasons that go way beyond the iPhone why they have not been doing well.

If they actually let you get an iPhone without a subsidy I'll be all over that. I hate subsidized phones. A subsidy is basically a loan you take out with the phone company to cover the cost of the phone, except that unlike a loan you get to continue paying it even after the phone is paid off. It's a total racket and it drives me crazy that all of the major carriers are absolutely wedded to them (because obviously, its free money after 2 years for them!).

Of course the reason I got off of T-Mo in the first place was because their coverage was less than stellar outside of the city. Supposedly they can roam, but in practice that just doesn't work. I had so many times when the phone was connected to an AT&T tower and showing service, but attempting to make a call or do data traffic resulted in absolutely nothing but long waits until it timed out. In fact it didn't work more often than it did.

I think I can and will keep my iPhone 5 for 3 years. That means one year can be off contract and I could just sign up with T-Mob. If they have decent LTE coverage in 2 years, I'll definately consider it.

T-Mobile is the first major carrier to try this and I think it's an amazing idea. I've had my Droid X for almost 2.5 years now, and though the battery life is a few hours at best and I would love a shiny new quad core device, the $$ required to get a good device is not worth it. Especially when my wife and I give Verizon around $160 a month for our phone service, I definitely don't want to give them anymore for a better handset.

T-Mobile has got it right in my eyes. The wireless carrier should not be a loan company that you need to enter into a 2 year slavery contract to get a new cellphone. If you want a new cellphone, great, go buy one. If you don't, enjoy the low monthly prices. This also opens up many more opportunities for freedom of handsets and the opportunity for handsets to get much cheaper. If it becomes much more common to buy your phone instead of selling 2 years of your life to your carrier for it, you'd be open to the possibility of shopping around for unlocked handsets. Also imagine the price wars that would ensue on Amazon, Newegg, etc if everyone started buying unlocked handsets from stores rather than the carrier.

If this goes through I will likely switch to T-Mobile. This is why we need more competition in the broadband internet market. We need an little guy to come in and undercut the incumbent by 30%-50% with a new strategy to shake things up.

I bought my unlocked iPhone 5 direct from Apple in late December, and it's now working fine on T-mobile. I got the web-only $30/month plan with 5GB of data before throttling but only 100 minutes phone; this is great for me, as reclusive hermits like myself rarely actually speak to anyone. For that price I'm willing to put up with 3G for a few months until (so they claim) they bring LTE to my area.

After spending two years under contract with Verizon and a phone I grew to hate, I will never go on contract again. And if another network gives a better deal in the future (with sufficient speed/coverage), I'll jump in a heartbeat.

Funny thing is, I'm getting faster response time on data use on T-mobile's 3G than I ever did on Verizon's supposed 4G. Probably due to Verizon's network being oversaturated in this area.

That's great T-Mobile, but you guys really need to improve your coverage here in Western New York. As soon as I leave Amherst it's nothing but Edge for as far as the eye can see. I make regular trips into Lockport and until T-Mobile gets better coverage outside of the city and it's 'burbs I'm stuck with AT&T's network via Straight Talk. It's simply more usable in more places.

I'd love for that to change, however. I didn't get the Pentaband Lumia 920 for nothing - hint hint.

The way it currently works with the "value" plans is that you pay the full price of the phone, but they'll put you on an interest-free payment plan so you don't have to put up the $700 all at once. Once the phone is paid-off your bill goes down, unlike the subsidized model which almost forces you to grab a new phone. Otherwise, you leave money on the table.

If what you're saying is what I think it is... then T-Mobile might well be preparing to push the entire cellular industry towards a more genuine "customer friendly" pricing model -- depending of course, upon whether or not / how much they change the prices for those no-contract monthly fees, of course. (I would anticipate that T-Mobile will be forced to raise their prices some, given the increased potential risk of customer churn that this will create.)

And three or four months? Hmmmm.... Come to think of it, my Verizon Wireless contact will be up right about then...

If they actually let you get an iPhone without a subsidy I'll be all over that. I hate subsidized phones. A subsidy is basically a loan you take out with the phone company to cover the cost of the phone, except that unlike a loan you get to continue paying it even after the phone is paid off. It's a total racket and it drives me crazy that all of the major carriers are absolutely wedded to them (because obviously, its free money after 2 years for them!).

That's why it's very foolish to not get a new phone as soon as you're eligible for another subsidy (20 months), assuming you have no plans to change carriers and don't mind being under contract. Even if you don't really need or want a new phone, you can turn around and sell a new iPhone for about a $200 premium over the $230-236 you'd pay Verizon or AT&T for an iPhone, or sell the used iPhone for $200-250.

And of course nothing stops you from activating an iPhone on an MVNO like StraightTalk (AT&T network) or Pageplus (Verizon network). There are some drawbacks, especially if you need to roam off these networks a lot, but the monthly savings are very large. We have four Android smart phones on Pageplus right now, on three different plans that they offer, and pay about $70/month (that's total, not per phone).

I don't really care about the iPhone, but T-Mobile coverage beats everyone but Verizon where I live (central North Carolina), so their cheaper options are pretty great here. I'm always a little amazed at how much worse their coverage sounds to be elsewhere, judging from what others say.

The longer term impacts are interesting for T-Mo, once it gets its hands on the MetroPCS spectrum, it'll be able to boost LTE speeds in urban areas to keep up with Verizon's LTE overlay with user speeds of 10-20Mb/s.

The problem with T-Mo is coverage, as mentioned above by a few other posters. They don't have the cash flow to expand their network more than just the top 100 urban areas. They have the spectrum, especially after they get their hands on MetroPCS, and MPCS will give them a little more cash once all the conversion is done by the end of 2015. But they aren't going to compete with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint in coverage, not for a long time.

They call it ERP,and it's a 0% interest loan,usually ~$200 upfront and then $xx payments over 20 months. Unfortunately you're paying the full subsidized price for the phone(which is upwards of $700! for the Note 2,$500 for the 16gb Nexus 4 ,etc) . And you'll still be locked into a 2 year contract if you're going to way T-Mobile wants you to(ie;Value Plan instead of Monthly4G)

Apologies but I don't get what you are saying.

Here in Europe, your loan (which is the money you save when you sign up to a 24 month contract) has an APR. You won't know exactly what that APR is - but at the end of the 24 months (and your contract), you've not only paid for the price of the phone but also a chunk of interest.

Like everything, if you can afford to pay the full price upfront, then you don't have a loan, your monthly line rental is significantly lower and you aren't tied into a contract. Carriers have found that they need to offer these loans to enable a large number of their customers (45% the last time I had access to data from a carrier) to be able to afford the brand new expensive phone that they want. An additional bonus is that they can make a bit of extra money from a decent APR.

Remember that if the APR is more than, say a credit card, then customers would use that as the payment method instead. The current average APR here in the UK is 15%, so a mobile contract would need to offer an APR of less than that to be seen as a more attractive option.

Any operator who offers you a 0% APR over 20 months is actually losing money on the deal, since they could make more money not loaning you the money and, instead, just keeping it in a bank account. That would be a damn good deal - are they really giving you that??

At the end of the day, whether you take a contract or not, you'll still end up paying the full unsubsidized price at some point - either part-way through your contract or up front when you buy the phone outright.

EDIT: Oops, as pointed out by shirokuro and others, the carrier will buy the phone from the OEM at (typically) 30% below the standard retail price. So the only profit they get is the standard markup they'd get from a phone - but spread over nearly two years and nothing more. I can now see why this is such a good deal for customers!

The longer term impacts are interesting for T-Mo, once it gets its hands on the MetroPCS spectrum, it'll be able to boost LTE speeds in urban areas to keep up with Verizon's LTE overlay with user speeds of 10-20Mb/s.

The problem with T-Mo is coverage, as mentioned above by a few other posters. They don't have the cash flow to expand their network more than just the top 100 urban areas. They have the spectrum, especially after they get their hands on MetroPCS, and MPCS will give them a little more cash once all the conversion is done by the end of 2015. But they aren't going to compete with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint in coverage, not for a long time.

I have an AT&T and a T-Mobile network device, I've never had any issue with coverage other than edge of network type coverage where each device works different (iPhone5 and a Xperia T.)

Far as I know they roam over each others network for GSM/EDGE traffic. If you are talking data ... both are spotty even IN big urban areas, as soon as you are off major highways and urban centers, EDGE is normally as good as you get. Even if you get 3G, it moves at a snails pace.

They call it ERP,and it's a 0% interest loan,usually ~$200 upfront and then $xx payments over 20 months. Unfortunately you're paying the full subsidized price for the phone(which is upwards of $700! for the Note 2,$500 for the 16gb Nexus 4 ,etc) . And you'll still be locked into a 2 year contract if you're going to way T-Mobile wants you to(ie;Value Plan instead of Monthly4G)

Apologies but I don't get what you are saying.

Here in Europe, your loan (which is the money you save when you sign up to a 24 month contract) has an APR. You won't know exactly what that APR is - but at the end of the 24 months (and your contract), you've not only paid for the price of the phone but also a chunk of interest.

Like everything, if you can afford to pay the full price upfront, then you don't have a loan, your monthly line rental is significantly lower and you aren't tied into a contract. Carriers have found that they need to offer these loans to enable a large number of their customers (45% the last time I had access to data from a carrier) to be able to afford the brand new expensive phone that they want. An additional bonus is that they can make a bit of extra money from a decent APR.

Remember that if the APR is more than, say a credit card, then customers would use that as the payment method instead. The current average APR here in the UK is 15%, so a mobile contract would need to offer an APR of less than that to be seen as a more attractive option.

Any operator who offers you a 0% APR over 20 months is actually losing money on the deal, since they could make more money not loaning you the money and, instead, just keeping it in a bank account. That would be a damn good deal - are they really giving you that??

At the end of the day, whether you take a contract or not, you'll still end up paying the full unsubsidized price at some point - either part-way through your contract or up front when you buy the phone outright.

Mrsilver,

If TMO do the "Equipment Installment Plan" (EIP) the way they did it a few years ago, when I last used it, here's how it works:You pick the phone, let's say it's a $600 phone, and the service plan, let's say $60 per month. You then have 2 choices:

1) Pay the full cost of the phone (plus sales tax, let's say 10%) - $660. Then you will pay $60 per month for the length of your contract (yes, they still make you sign a 2 year contract if you go with their "Value" postpaid plan, as opposed to their "Monthly4G" prepaid plan, but their termination fee is $200 which is almost half the other US carriers' ETF of $350(.

2) Sign up for the EIP. You will pay $200 up-front for the phone, PLUS the FULL sales tax on the cost of the phone (10% of the full $600 = $60) so at the store you will pay $260. You will still have the $60 monthly service charge, but they will split the remaining $400 cost of the phone over 20 monthly payments of $20, added to your bill. YES, interest free 0%APR. They are NOT making money on the sale of the phone from interest, only from whatever profit the $600 cost might get them - and yes, by spreading the cost of the phone interest free, I am sure they are losing some immediate profit. With the EIP, you would pay $60+$20 = $80 per month for the first 20 months, with the cost going back down to $60 when you have paid off the full $400 outstanding cost. But here is the great part - let's say after the first 3 months, so you've paid 3*$20 = $60 of the outstanding $400, so you have $340 left to pay. Instead of continuing to pay over the remaining 17 months, you can decide to pay the whole $340 on your next bill. Maybe you won the lottery or something? You would get one gigantic bill for $400 ($340 + $60) but then your bill goes back down to $60 because you've paid off the loan completely. It's very flexible. I think it's a great system - they just need to advertise it the right way.

They claim they will have 100 million subscribers covered by LTE by the middle of the year, too. Could this be the year of T-Mobile? Next year?

Having been a T-Mobile subscriber for over 3 years, I do have to say their customer service is top-notch. The fact that they're going to start officially carrying the iPhone does worry me a little, but they've had 5 years that AT&T didn't have to bolster and reinforce their network in preparation. I personally won't switch, I enjoy Android far too much, and I don't like the iPhone's user interface as much as Android's.

I would think it better for them to work as an option a 0% loan that gets paid off. $30 per month for all you can eat, another $30 give you $720 phone for 0 down.

I would think at the cost of these damned things you'd be given the option of leasing them instead of buying them. They cost as much as a mid-range laptop because these things are computers not phones. Expecting people to be willing to shell out over $700 for what is marketed as a cellphone is crazy.

I suspect they're mostly just overpriced. Unless cellular radios are worth $300-400. My tablet has everything my phone has, except a CDMA and LTE radio. Actually, it has more. It has triple the battery, twice as much screen (at lower pixel density though), and it cost less than one third what Verizon says my phone should retail for (which is significantly higher than Ting sells it for). And Google has been able to sell phones that are pretty much as good for about $300 less.

They call it ERP,and it's a 0% interest loan,usually ~$200 upfront and then $xx payments over 20 months. Unfortunately you're paying the full subsidized price for the phone(which is upwards of $700! for the Note 2,$500 for the 16gb Nexus 4 ,etc) . And you'll still be locked into a 2 year contract if you're going to way T-Mobile wants you to(ie;Value Plan instead of Monthly4G)

Apologies but I don't get what you are saying.

Here in Europe, your loan (which is the money you save when you sign up to a 24 month contract) has an APR. You won't know exactly what that APR is - but at the end of the 24 months (and your contract), you've not only paid for the price of the phone but also a chunk of interest.

Like everything, if you can afford to pay the full price upfront, then you don't have a loan, your monthly line rental is significantly lower and you aren't tied into a contract. Carriers have found that they need to offer these loans to enable a large number of their customers (45% the last time I had access to data from a carrier) to be able to afford the brand new expensive phone that they want. An additional bonus is that they can make a bit of extra money from a decent APR.

Remember that if the APR is more than, say a credit card, then customers would use that as the payment method instead. The current average APR here in the UK is 15%, so a mobile contract would need to offer an APR of less than that to be seen as a more attractive option.

Any operator who offers you a 0% APR over 20 months is actually losing money on the deal, since they could make more money not loaning you the money and, instead, just keeping it in a bank account. That would be a damn good deal - are they really giving you that??

At the end of the day, whether you take a contract or not, you'll still end up paying the full unsubsidized price at some point - either part-way through your contract or up front when you buy the phone outright.

Mrsilver,

If TMO do the "Equipment Installment Plan" (EIP) the way they did it a few years ago, when I last used it, here's how it works:You pick the phone, let's say it's a $600 phone, and the service plan, let's say $60 per month. You then have 2 choices:

1) Pay the full cost of the phone (plus sales tax, let's say 10%) - $660. Then you will pay $60 per month for the length of your contract (yes, they still make you sign a 2 year contract if you go with their "Value" postpaid plan, as opposed to their "Monthly4G" prepaid plan, but their termination fee is $200 which is almost half the other US carriers' ETF of $350(.

2) Sign up for the EIP. You will pay $200 up-front for the phone, PLUS the FULL sales tax on the cost of the phone (10% of the full $600 = $60) so at the store you will pay $260. You will still have the $60 monthly service charge, but they will split the remaining $400 cost of the phone over 20 monthly payments of $20, added to your bill. YES, interest free 0%APR. They are NOT making money on the sale of the phone from interest, only from whatever profit the $600 cost might get them - and yes, by spreading the cost of the phone interest free, I am sure they are losing some immediate profit. With the EIP, you would pay $60+$20 = $80 per month for the first 20 months, with the cost going back down to $60 when you have paid off the full $400 outstanding cost. But here is the great part - let's say after the first 3 months, so you've paid 3*$20 = $60 of the outstanding $400, so you have $340 left to pay. Instead of continuing to pay over the remaining 17 months, you can decide to pay the whole $340 on your next bill. Maybe you won the lottery or something? You would get one gigantic bill for $400 ($340 + $60) but then your bill goes back down to $60 because you've paid off the loan completely. It's very flexible. I think it's a great system - they just need to advertise it the right way.

My girlfriend did that when she got the Galaxy S Blaze 4G recently, she used the EIP program. It is an excellent program if you cannot afford to spend $600 on a phone. Though, who knows what the future will bring with that, what with the Nexus 4 being available unlocked at under $300...

They claim they will have 100 million subscribers covered by LTE by the middle of the year, too. Could this be the year of T-Mobile? Next year?

Having been a T-Mobile subscriber for over 3 years, I do have to say their customer service is top-notch. The fact that they're going to start officially carrying the iPhone does worry me a little, but they've had 5 years that AT&T didn't have to bolster and reinforce their network in preparation. I personally won't switch, I enjoy Android far too much, and I don't like the iPhone's user interface as much as Android's.

Is there something special about the iPhone that makes it hog cellular network bandwidth. I've been a pretty heavy user of my last two Android phones and my total cellular data use is around 300MB per month. The things have wifi radios...

They call it ERP,and it's a 0% interest loan,usually ~$200 upfront and then $xx payments over 20 months. Unfortunately you're paying the full subsidized price for the phone(which is upwards of $700! for the Note 2,$500 for the 16gb Nexus 4 ,etc) . And you'll still be locked into a 2 year contract if you're going to way T-Mobile wants you to(ie;Value Plan instead of Monthly4G)

Apologies but I don't get what you are saying.

Here in Europe, your loan (which is the money you save when you sign up to a 24 month contract) has an APR. You won't know exactly what that APR is - but at the end of the 24 months (and your contract), you've not only paid for the price of the phone but also a chunk of interest.

Like everything, if you can afford to pay the full price upfront, then you don't have a loan, your monthly line rental is significantly lower and you aren't tied into a contract. Carriers have found that they need to offer these loans to enable a large number of their customers (45% the last time I had access to data from a carrier) to be able to afford the brand new expensive phone that they want. An additional bonus is that they can make a bit of extra money from a decent APR.

Remember that if the APR is more than, say a credit card, then customers would use that as the payment method instead. The current average APR here in the UK is 15%, so a mobile contract would need to offer an APR of less than that to be seen as a more attractive option.

Any operator who offers you a 0% APR over 20 months is actually losing money on the deal, since they could make more money not loaning you the money and, instead, just keeping it in a bank account. That would be a damn good deal - are they really giving you that??

At the end of the day, whether you take a contract or not, you'll still end up paying the full unsubsidized price at some point - either part-way through your contract or up front when you buy the phone outright.

T-Mobile USA is making money directly from EIP(that's the name, sorry) plans by charging the MSRP; since they buy wholesale, they're not paying $700+ sales tax(I do like VAT on that note!) for a Note 2(which is the EIP price),I bet it's closer to $680(hey, $20 is $20 eh?). T-Mobile was paying for the cost of the phone anyway in the old model,so offering a "0% loan" after >= $200 down doesn't increase their costs anymore than it did before(it's like layaway(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layaway)) .

They claim they will have 100 million subscribers covered by LTE by the middle of the year, too. Could this be the year of T-Mobile? Next year?

Having been a T-Mobile subscriber for over 3 years, I do have to say their customer service is top-notch. The fact that they're going to start officially carrying the iPhone does worry me a little, but they've had 5 years that AT&T didn't have to bolster and reinforce their network in preparation. I personally won't switch, I enjoy Android far too much, and I don't like the iPhone's user interface as much as Android's.

Is there something special about the iPhone that makes it hog cellular network bandwidth. I've been a pretty heavy user of my last two Android phones and my total cellular data use is around 300MB per month. The things have wifi radios...

Mostly because iPhone users are more likely to use the internet is all. On Android there is a very large range of phones. High end ones are fine for the internet, but a whole lot of cheap ones too that make internet use painful. Very painful.